Sherry Allen – 1/31/10

This page was last updated on January 31, 2010.

Election ruling terrible for nation; Sherry Allen; Beaver County Times; January 31, 2010.

Ms. Allen wrote three previous letters I didn’t critique. One (“Conserving water for future,” 1/13/08) asked us to conserve water (primarily by not eating meat) and another (“Say ‘no’ to push polling,” 2/10/08) complained about alleged telephone “push polls” by Republicans, and the third was (“Plant a garden to offset oil usage,” 8/1/08). In one letter I did critique, Ms. Allen gushed about a book she found “that has hundreds of ideas on how to save our planet.” In a partisan letter, Ms. Allen concluded with “Let’s endeavor to walk together peacefully.” In one letter, Ms. Allen related a story of disaffected Republicans voting for Mr. Obama. In another letter, Ms. Allen tried to compare abortion and war in an effort to promote Barack Obama over John McCain. Other letters from Ms. Allen were entitled “Let’s be proactive on the environment,” “Arena a valuable community asset,” “Time to get behind health-care reform,” and “A state budget we can all live with,” and “Keep pushing for a public option.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“I share the editorial board’s frustration as expressed in Tuesday’s editorial, ‘For what it’s worth: Supreme Court’s ruling makes it easier to manipulate elections.’”

[RWC] What a shock! Someone who may have a Barack Obama shrine in her home <g> agrees with the Times and Mr. Obama. I covered the central point of this issue in critiques here, here, and here. As a result, this critique will address only points specific to this letter.

“I was horrified last week hearing this news. Now, it’s legal for corporations to spend directly money on elections to control our government’s decisions. Thinking citizens should be outraged.”

[RWC] Ms. Allen failed to note the ruling also covered labor union management. An honest omission? Given Ms. Allen’s letter-writing body of work, I doubt it. Also note Ms. Allen’s implication that if you don’t agree with her, you are not a “thinking citizen.”

Ms. Allen apparently failed to note the hypocrisy of one corporation (Times owner and operator Calkins Media, Inc.) demanding freedom of speech while lobbying to deny that same right to other corporations. I wonder if Ms. Allen believes the Times should lose its free speech rights.

I suspect Ms. Allen’s objects because she believes Republican candidates would benefit much more than Democrats. While I don’t have a crystal ball, current giving by business to candidates would tend to throw water on that belief. As I noted in one of the aforementioned critiques, according to FEC data for the 2008 election cycle, 92% of contributions by labor union PACs went to Democrats. Are we to believe 92% of union membership is Democrat? As for business PACs, the split was 49% for Democrats and 51% for Republicans.

“Last week, President Barack Obama said, ‘We need a grassroots movement to counteract this.’

“Remember the determination of the people helped get him elected. Together we can save our country. Actions speak louder than words.

“Let’s be motivated by what a school principal often quoted that profoundly impressed me: ‘When they came for the Jews, I was silent because I wasn’t a Jew. When they came for the Catholics, I was silent because I wasn’t a Catholic. But when they came for me, there was no one left to call for help.’”

[RWC] If you’re familiar with Ms. Allen’s letter-writing body of work, you won’t be surprised to learn either she or the “school principal” likely got this quote wrong. When Rev. Martin Niemöller first recited his poem in 1946, he said, “First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out.” In fairness, there are different groups mentioned depending on where you get the quote, but I didn’t find Ms. Allen’s (or her principal’s) version.

“We can go on Web sites and sign petitions, and we can put pressure on elected officials to pass laws to salvage this disaster.

“Our country needs us. We must step up.”

[RWC] Translation: Ms. Allen wants to “put pressure on elected officials to pass laws to” curtail the First Amendment rights of corporations and labor union management. I suspect Ms. Allen would want those laws to uphold the ruling for labor union management while nullifying it for corporations.